Field
The example embodiments in general are directed to a targeting illumination unit for a weapon such as a firearm or bow, a combination including the unit and weapon, and to an illumination unit adapted to be retrofitted to a conventional flashlight.
Related Art
For well over a hundred years, proposals have been made for assisting the aiming of firearms with light beams or light spots on targets. The development of laser diodes comparable in size and ruggedness to small incandescent light bulbs spawned additional advances, and advanced laser beam aim assistance systems have been developed for law enforcement and private citizens alike.
For example, FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional night shooting aid for a firearm. The shooting aid includes a mounting device or structural member 10 configured to receive a flashlight 18 as well as a firearm 20. The structural device 10 includes a flashlight-engaging portion 12 along one edge, and a firearm-receiving member (clip C—see clip member 24) along the opposite edge, at a laterally removed location from the flashlight-engaging portion 12. The clip member 24 has upwardly extending, elongate sidewalls 26 and 28 that are closer together at the top than at the bottom, forming a clip member 24 whose sidewalls strongly resist separation. The uppermost edges 32 and 34 of the clip member 24 are rounded so as to readily receive a forward structural portion of the firearm 20. In this way the flashlight 18 and firearm 20 supported by the structural member 10 can be aimed in a common direction. Therefore, upon the clip sidewalls 26 and 28 being forced apart to receive a forward portion of a firearm 20 therein, they, upon release, tightly grip the firearm 20, and serve to direct the aim of the firearm 20 to a point of coincidence with the aim of the flashlight 18, generally in the range of 12 feet to 18 feet in front of the user.
Accordingly, a normal human response toward a potential threat is to want to see it as clearly as possible. Existing weapon mounted lights, which contain only narrow illumination beams, typically have the most intense portion of the light beam parallel with the weapon's barrel. This necessitates that the best lit area is also the general location that a bullet would strike if the weapon were discharged. In this light, a more recent conventional weapon-mounted light is described in FIGS. 2 and 3, which comprises a flashlight 210, mounted on, or adjacent to, the barrel 205 of a firearm/weapon, that has a broad beam of light 250 to illuminate at an angle to both sides of the target. The mounted flashlight 210 permits the light beam 250 to encompass adjacent areas, above/below and/or to both sides, to the line of the barrel 205 in which the target lies. The light 210 is mounted to the weapon via a rail, a trigger guard, or the like, and may be disposed along the bottom, the top, or sides of the barrel 205.
As shown, the weapon mounted light 210 is affixed to the weapon, which has a bore disposed along a targeting line T of the weapon. A bulb-reflector cap assembly 216 has at least one light source 217, and a reflector 254 conformed to direct the broad beam of light 250 generated by the at least one light source 217 in which the beam 250 generated encompasses a broad area outside of the line of the target T. The light 210 may be disposed along the bottom, the top, or to the side of the weapon G, as is well known in the art. A laser target sight 215 may be provided integrally attached to the weapon mounted light 212, or as an accessory thereto (not shown), as is well known in the art. Alternatively, a laser target sight 215 may be provided in the bulb-reflector assembly 216. A switch 218 is provided on a base 214 to actuate light 210 and/or the selectively actuate of the at least one light source 217.
While the above types of systems exhibit sound performance, they are typically rather expensive and therefore may be beyond the reach of many police departments or citizens. Moreover, none of these systems projects any kind of image which may assist the user in targeting; merely a light beam.